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Stylus microscope

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Fatmangolf View Drop Down
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    Posted: 27 Jun 2017 at 12:08am
If you search for "stylus wear" you may find that you stumble upon attempts to visually inspect the very small stylus tip that is of course dragged along the record groove. I read enough to confirm my suspicion that just pointing a 100x loupe microscope or a macro lense via magnifying glasses wasn't going to diagnose stylus wear.

I had downloaded a manual for the Shure SEK 2 stylus microscope in Autumn 2014 but saw the example images were a bit vague and let the idea go. I picked it up again recently using a student microscope I had and a couple of white LED's that were spare from my SL1210 cueing light which I made blue instead. (If you want more detail on the DIY see the AK thread written by Sparky in 2009).

Usually a microscope is backlit from underneath the slide but can be lit from above if the object is opaque, my microscope has both options with switched LEDs so I connected to the existing circuit to power the stylus inspection LEDs. I cut down a small plastic box to create a yoke holding the LED's either side of the viewing area and slightly above the height of the stylus. Should also note that I unscrewed the microscope stage and refitted it unside down so it is lower, giving the right height for the stylus to be in focus with the 4x and 10x lenses. All cheap and reversible!

So far so good. I found the microscope with LEDs made the facets visible by brightly reflecting the LEDs' light. Seemed to work on my DL103 where I did see a spot each side, the bit where the light is reflected on a curved surface (spherical stylus) that otherwise reflects the LED light away from the microscope lens. I will explore this further but am less convinced now that the microscope is a good test for wear on a microridge or line contact stylus. It would have to be very worn or chipped to look different from new at 200-250x magnification.

I will see if I can take a digital photo and share it here.

Jon

Open mind and ears whilst owning GSP Genera, Accession M, Accession MC, Elevator EXP, Solo ULDE, Proprius amps, Cusat50 cables, Lautus digital cable, Spatia cables and links, and a Majestic DAC.
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Fatmangolf View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Fatmangolf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Jul 2017 at 12:36pm
Well I have tried but not yet succeeded in photographing the view through the stylus microscope I constructed. Sorry.

However I have now looked at a wider range of stylus shapes including spherical/conical and elliptical. In those cases I can see the practical use because the curvature means there is a spot where the light reflects up into the lens rather than being scattered away from it. Think of a torch beam shining off a steel ball or a reflective speaker cone.

By contrast the line contact designs show as exactly that, two tiny lines with a small gap between their ends. Think of a wooden snooker triangle withone corner facing up and lit from both sides with very large lights. The stylus tip is rounded off so darker, perhaps the give away is the bright lines starteing to meet in the middle? Or visible chipping that varies the width of the lines? Hmmm I think you'd hear mistracking/distortion on records long before that.

So I think I'll take the DIY lighting off my microscope and pop it back into the cupboard. My conclusion is that the stylus microscope probably isn't a reliable diagnostic tool for me. I will go back to keeping a rough count of number of records played and assume about 2 years of use (assuming average of one to two LPs played per pay), or when distortion may be apparent on previously good discs.

Jon

Open mind and ears whilst owning GSP Genera, Accession M, Accession MC, Elevator EXP, Solo ULDE, Proprius amps, Cusat50 cables, Lautus digital cable, Spatia cables and links, and a Majestic DAC.
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